Paagasalai – Visa Publications – Thirumagal Nilayam – Sucons Apartment, No. 13, Sivaprakasam Street, T. Nagar, Chennai 600017, 24342899, 24327696 – Rs. 135.
Yagasalai is where homams are performed invoking divine powers. This book is all about the mind and the body prepared for elevated deeds, the fire coming from within. Balakumaran speaks of kundalini and mental concentration that can move mountains. The mantra is only a tool, the real force is you, your mind, guru tells sishya. There is a story in which these ideas are embedded.
Swaminatha Sarma, a residential school teacher, is humiliated. He chooses the option in order to save his dear students. But he is not going to forgive. He will hit back, only he has to wait for the right time and the right disciple. In walks ten-year old Prasanna. The wet clay is ready to be moulded and an eager Sarma adopts him. The real and the metaphysical blend as the guru-sishya relationship blossoms. The fire is passed on, insult avenged and the guru’s mission ends, heralding the beginning of another.
Language is Balakumaran’s forte and the author makes the narration riveting with his word power. The book is strewn with concepts and ideas fit to be pursued by those inclined.
Also by Balakumaran, from the same publisher: ‘Mannil Theriyudu Vaanam,’ a collection of essays (Rs. 155). From dining table etiquette to dealing with old age and civic sense, parenting and spiritualism, a spectrum of issues is analysed in inimitable style, humour running as a silver thread.
